Senior citizens a bigger slice of US society: census
People over 65 make up an increasingly large slice of US society, some 40.3 million in 2010, the US Census Bureau reported Wednesday.
In just a decade, the age group -- which numbered 35 million back in 2000 -- surged by 15.1 percent, even as the population as a whole increased by 9.7 percent.
In certain subgroups, the increases among seniors were huge: people from ages 85-94 increased in number by 29.9% (5.1 million compared to 3.9 million 10 years earlier) and people from 65-69 increased in number by 30.4% (12.4 million compared to 9.5 a decade ago).
But those from 75-79 actually decreased from 7.4 million to 7.3 million (-1.3 percent), reflecting a low birth rate in the Depression-era early 1930s.
Southern US states are home to far many older Americans: 14.9 million compared to just 7.8 million in the northeast.
Florida, a fabled sun-and-sand destination for US retirees, had the highest proportion of elderly, at 17.3 percent. Alaska sent seniors scrambling, with just 7.7 percent of the population over 65, the data showed.
The number of centenarians surged by 5.8 percent in 10 years, to 53,365 over 100 in 2010.
(c) 2011 AFP
-
From lemons to lemonade: Reaction uses carbon dioxide to make carbon-based semiconductor,
32 comments
-
Thioridazine kills cancer stem cells in human while avoiding toxic side-effects of conventional cancer treatments,
3 comments
-
SpaceX private rocket blasts off for space station (Update),
42 comments
-
Climate scientists say they have solved riddle of rising sea,
31 comments
-
SpaceX capsule has 'new car' smell, astronauts say (Update),
4 comments
-
Consumption rivalry
May 25, 2012
-
Bilateral trade between all countries
May 24, 2012
-
Is the economic foundation of social media in jeopardy?
May 20, 2012
-
Psychology: Rosenthal and Hawthorne Effect
May 15, 2012
-
Is GDP and National Income the Same Thing?
May 13, 2012
-
Difference between hourly wage and real GDP per hour worked?
May 12, 2012
- More from Physics Forums - Social Sciences
More news stories
Change in developmental timing was crucial in the evolutionary shift from dinosaurs to birds: study
At first glance, it's hard to see how a common house sparrow and a Tyrannosaurus Rex might have anything in common. After all, one is a bird that weighs less than an ounce, and the other is a dinosaur that ...
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
5 hours ago |
5 / 5 (4) |
0
|
Social welfare cuts ultimately come with heavy price, researchers say
(Phys.org) -- Slashing government funding for Medicaid, food stamps and other programs that serve the poor – while politically popular with some lawmakers and many conservatives – may do more harm ...
Other Sciences / Social Sciences
May 24, 2012 |
4.2 / 5 (20) |
155
Ancient Bethlehem seal unearthed in Jerusalem
Israeli archaeologists have discovered a 2,700-year-old seal that bears the inscription "Bethlehem," the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Wednesday, in what experts believe to be the oldest artifact ...
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
May 23, 2012 |
3.3 / 5 (15) |
24
Dollars and sense: Why are some people morally against tax?
As the U.S. presidential election campaigns heat up, the economic debate is dominated by bailouts, austerity and, inevitably, taxation. Now a new study published in Symbolic Interaction asks why tax is such an important issue ...
Other Sciences / Social Sciences
May 23, 2012 |
2.3 / 5 (3) |
16
Oldest Jewish archaeological evidence on the Iberian Peninsula
German archaeologists of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena found one of the oldest archaeological evidence so far of Jewish Culture on the Iberian Peninsula at an excavation site in the south of Portugal, ...
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
May 25, 2012 |
4.2 / 5 (6) |
12
'Unzipped' carbon nanotubes could help energize fuel cells, batteries
Multi-walled carbon nanotubes riddled with defects and impurities on the outside could replace some of the expensive platinum catalysts used in fuel cells and metal-air batteries, according to scientists at ...
Computer model used to pinpoint prime materials for efficient carbon capture
When power plants begin capturing their carbon emissions to reduce greenhouse gases – and to most in the electric power industry, it's a question of when, not if – it will be an expensive undertaking.
T cells 'hunt' parasites like animal predators seek prey, study shows
By pairing an intimate knowledge of immune-system function with a deep understanding of statistical physics, a cross-disciplinary team at the University of Pennsylvania has arrived at a surprising finding: T cells use a movement ...
Land and sea species differ in climate change response: study
(Phys.org) -- Marine and terrestrial species will likely differ in their responses to climate warming, new research by Simon Fraser University and Australia’s University of Tasmania has found.
Yale study concludes public apathy over climate change unrelated to science literacy
Are members of the public divided about climate change because they don't understand the science behind it? If Americans knew more basic science and were more proficient in technical reasoning, would public consensus match ...
10 million years needed to recover from mass extinction
It took some 10 million years for Earth to recover from the greatest mass extinction of all time, latest research has revealed.
